Last night in Queens, which is to New York what New York is to America, and what America is to the world — a place dedicated to the pursuit of new beginnings — Zohran Mamdani gathered a reported 13,000 people eager to cast off an era of greed and cruelty and draft a new compact rooted in a big idea: dignity as freedom.
Arriving at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, you had to remind yourself that this was merely — “merely” feeling like the wrong word here — a mayoral election rally. Because it was a presidential crowd. Thousands and thousands of people pouring in to fill a stadium that is more often used for performers like Mumford & Sons, Chappell Roan, and Shawn Mendes. Something is happening in New York, something some very wealthy and powerful people don’t want to be happening, and their Hamptony panic is making it happen more and more…